Brothers win 13 of 14 races Saturday night

Napoleon tried to rule the world, but failed; The Napolitanos came closer. The non-Napolitano to win was harness racing driver Mike Simons, who took the 11th with Rock Absorber.

 

Imagine having a .564 UDR for a night's driving (14-6-3-1), and having your kid brother BEAT you by 111 POINTS (13-7-2-2-.675)! Yes, George – oh, brother.

 

The last winner Anthony drove was a favorite; the first six winners he drove were NON-favorites. One of them was Due West Hanover, who was last at the half but rallied to beat out Forego The Cigar (and George) to pay $69.80 – Anthony's second Pocono "bomber" in six nights, as last Monday he guided Majo Just Do It to the Downs' winners circle at a seasonal-high mutuel of $197.00.

 

In contrast, the last winner George drove was a non-favorite; the first five winners he drove were ALL favorites.

 

In fact, George drove the favorite in EACH of the first TEN races, and thus doing better than the norm with five wins (50%). The only other possible time when a driver drove ten straight favorites is believed to be September 10, 1978, at Hinsdale Raceway in New Hampshire, where Herve Filion made a guest appearance. The Hinsdale Race Office told trainers to put down Herve if they wanted him to drive their horse, and legend has it that out of 168 entrants for that card, Herve was named on 123 of them – and the race office put him on what they believed to be the best horse he was named on in each race. Filion had two seconds – and eight wins, the first time a driver had eight victories on one pari-mutuel card. (The second, by the way, was Pat Crowe of Cam Fella fame.)

 

The brothers were 1-2 in five of the races Saturday, with Anthony holding a 3-2 edge in that category.

 

The 13 winners between two brothers on one card is believed to break the previous record of 11 set June 10, 2011 right at Pocono – by brothers George (11 wins) and Anthony (0 wins, but he raced on the card) Napolitano. In fact, that night Anthony was second behind longshots who extended George driving the winning favorite twice, with one race having George's even-money shot beating his 10-1 horse by a half-length, and then George winning by a neck at 7-5* against Anthony's 8-1 shot.

 

An historical note: those 11 wins on one raceway card in June 2011 ties George Napolitano Jr. with Dave Palone (4-21-08, Meadows) as the standard in that category. One of "GNap"'s wins that night was in a dead-heat for first. Pocono had 16 races on George's record night, and George drove in all 16 – in the ones he didn't win, he was eighth, eighth, eighth, fifth – and (most people don't remember this) FIRST PLACED SECOND (yes, he crossed the wire first TWELVE times hat night) with a pacer named Lavern's Art, placed down for interference; placed up was driver … Mike Simons (who started this whole discussion, above).